Daring Ashutosh Leaves His Mark Once More

Ashutosh had been impressing opponents with his power-hitting at the death for four consecutive games, but his nascent IPL career peaked when he slog-swept Jasprit Bumrah for a six en way to another rearguard act for Punjab Kings. Whether it was the license of a free-hit that inspired him to try his “dream shot off Bumrah” or the genuine confidence of having admittedly rehearsed it several times in nets, talking about it puts a smile back to his face, even after yet another tight defeat for his club. He smiled confidently shortly after as the ball soared across to the backward square leg stands, knowing he had done it “against the world’s best bowler”.

Bumrah’s menace in the PowerPlay had forced him to take guard as early as the 10th over, with PBKS pushed to the point of no return at 77/6 in a chase of 193. Ashutosh, on the other hand, was walking in to join his partner-in-crime, Shashank Singh, in the middle of the Ahmedabad theft. Even if an encore was not in the cards, Ashutosh turned the game on its head for the following eight overs with some great reading and bold strokeplay that left the Mumbai Indians scrambling for answers.

Ashutosh made his intentions obvious from the start, aided by a hit-me length ball wandering down leg from Akash Madhwal, which he swung powerfully over the fine leg ropes. This was merely the beginning; a game-changing moment awaited at death.

Romario Shepherd then started with a short and wide ball, which was slapped, rather literally. But the highlight of this fight was his helicopter shot, which he crashed over deep square-leg. MI skipper Hardik Pandya came on for damage control after noticing another helicopter flying over the leg-side ropes.

MI summoned Bumrah for assistance, who was able to eliminate Shashank and end a dangerous partnership on 34, but Ashutosh refused to back down. He expected a yorker after the MI spearhead overstepped later in the over, took it on the full, dropped to one knee, and swept it for a fourth leg-side six, bursting into a smile knowing he had outwitted one of the game’s best.

Shepherd replied with a back of length slower ball, which the 25-year-old hit to deep midwicket for another maximum. Ashutosh, who was mostly a leg-side player, had caused a stir with his fierce striking. MI’s field placement showed that fear was creeping in when Gerald Coetzee returned to the top of his bowling mark after allowing back-to-back boundaries to Harpreet Brar in his first over. MI had four fielders on the leg-side for Ashutosh: fine leg, square leg, deep midwicket, and long-on, all of whom were pushed back to the ropes and none inside the ring. But panic produced pressure, and Coetzee erred with a delectable full ball from around the wicket, which the PBKS finisher assisted to the fine leg ropes. Rohit Sharma had to rush in to console the bowler, perhaps encouraging him to stick to his talents. Coetzee returned across the wicket with a slower ball outside off that Ashutosh was unable to connect to.

Then followed the 10-ball long Madhwal over, which pushed PBKS ahead, although briefly. Ashutosh was only on strike for the second half, but he still managed to reduce the equation from 42 off 27 to 28 off the final four overs. With the mid-off on the circle, Ashutosh anticipated the bowler’s line and length, backed away to make room for the attempted yorker, and hammered it flat over the ropes for his first IPL half-century in 23 balls. To make matters worse, the bowler overstepped, and the Punjab hitter reverse-scored the free-hit over short third for his eighth maximum of the night, which would have made a certain AB de Villiers happy.

Brar joined in the fun by sending the slot delivery back over the bowler’s head for a third devastating six of the over, bringing the PBKS asking rate down to a reasonable 7 per over and allowing them to see off Bumrah’s last over, which featured only the three singles that had come earlier. However, the three dots at the back indicated Ashutosh would be attempting to break free against the following bowler, and Coetzee left five guys on the fence with the clear intention of going short as he slowed the tempo. Ashutosh took the bait and holed out straight to deep midwicket, ending a magnificent counter-attacking knock and, with it, Punjab’s chances.

Coetzee’s yell said it all: the ploy had worked. “He was cruising the game for them,” the South African explained, adding, “He really brought [the offensive] to us. So we just wanted to be extremely clear tactically about what we wanted to accomplish, and I think we executed it incredibly well on the backside to shut it down.

“We realised from their innings and the mistakes that we made in our innings that you really had to use the big boundary. They did really well with taking the pace off, which is quite hard. So we just learnt from their innings and adapted our plans and it worked,” he said of the well-laid out plan for Ashutosh’s dismissal. “He didn’t hit it too badly, it was just pace off on the big boundary.”

Pandya, with relief on his face after MI won by nine runs, raised his hat to the youngster. “[Ashutosh] was wonderful. Coming in and playing like that, hitting practically every ball off the middle of the bat with ease, knowing exactly what he wants to do. It’s wonderful. “I’m very happy for him, and for his future,” stated the MI skipper.

Ashutosh’s IPL career is only four innings old, but he has been the face of the team’s death-overs batting in all of them, with his nerveless 28-ball 61 following 31, 33*, and 31 to save PBKS’ blushes in consecutive games.

“Sanjay [Bangar] sir advised me, ‘You’re not a slogger; you play real cricketing strokes, and you should focus on [honing] them. That modest comment and gesture of confidence from him made a significant difference for me and changed my game. “I’m just trying to follow that,” Ashutosh said of his meetings with the team’s Head of Cricket Development.

He is a man with few words but a lot of self-confidence. In most cases, that is all that is required to realize the larger dream.